Into the Fray
by HeartzLove
Summary: Six months ago, six teenagers shut down a evil supercomputer that threatened to take over the world. Now that XANA is shut down, those six can finally enjoy life as normal teenagers, or so they thought. XANA returned from the dead, for revenge, for vengeance. XANA returned for a fight. XANA is back, and he is stronger than ever, swearing that he is not going down. Not this time.
1. He's Back Part 1

**Hello my fellow readers! Welcome to my very first story. I'm so excited to get into it and see what you guys think! I've been a Code Lyoko fan ever since the first episode, and I am just finally writing about it. So I hope you enjoy! This takes place after season 4, but before Code Lyoko: Evolution.**

_How can you see into my eyes like open doors?_

_Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb._

_Without a soul my spirits sleeping somewhere cold_

_Until you find it there and lead it back home._

It was dark. It was cold. Somewhere in the middle of Boulogne-Billancourt, France, laid a semi-very old a banded factory. Nobody knew about what went on in the factory, or to say the least, what _was_ going on in the factory. Several floors down, the power to the factory slowly began to stagger on. But the thing is, no one was there to turn it on. It began to function by itself.

_He_ or _It_ was back.

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside._

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside._

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark._

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run._

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone._

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become._

_He _somehow, returned from the dead after being destroyed by six teenagers months ago. _He _returned for revenge. _He _returned for vengeance. _He _returned for a fight. _He _was not going down without a fight, and good fight at that.

_Now that I know what I'm without_

_You can't just leave me_

_Breathe into me and make me real_

_Bring me to life_

_He _made sure he pulled out all of the stocks to make sure the six warriors that brought him down were going to die. _He _made had a plan, and brilliant plan he thought it was to take out each of the warriors one by one. _He _knew he was going to win. For months they thought he was dead, but what they didn't know was that he _was never_ dead.

_(Wake me up) Wake me up inside._

_(I can't wake up) Wake me up inside._

_(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark._

_(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run._

_(I can't wake up) Before I come undone._

_(Save me) Save me from the nothing I've become._

_He_ was never dead. _He _knew those "rotten kids" should have known that there is always a back source. The phrase "always back up your work" came in handy. Once his back up computer was now fully loaded, he felt that he was ready, ready to take out the six that stood in his way. He was ready for the world to be in his hands, and have all those who breathe air bow down to him as their king, their master. _He _is XANA.

_**Meanwhile….**_

A group of six friends were currently practicing for the upcoming Battle of the Bands concert that was being held by their school. It was a fun extracurricular event the school decided to host to kick off the beginning of the school year. Also, since the group of six friends had more time on their hands, they decided to pick up their band where it left off a couple years ago, mainly due to Odd's consistent begging and pleading. Now, the Pop Rock Progressives were back.

A slightly tan, but still slightly pale girl, about average height now, due to the fact that all the guys in the group were now taller than her was the lead singer. Her name was Yumi. Yumi Ishiyama. She's a very beautiful girl, but also a tough one at that. She had shoulder length black hair, and wore a black long sleeve sweater, black leggings, and black combat boots; moreover. Needless to say, her singing voice defiantly sounded way better than it did in the past.

Yumi closed her eyes, and sang the next lyrics to the song…

_Frozen inside without your touch_

_Without your love, darling_

_Only you are the life among the dead._

Each of her friends knew who she was talking and thinking about when she sang those lyrics. His name was Ulrich. Ulrich Stern. Ulrich, was indeed, very handsome, and good looking, that would explain why he was considered one of the most popular guys in school. Not that he paid any attention to his popularity, or the attention he received from it. Ulrich had brown hair, and dark green intensive eyes. He was the tallest out of all the guys in the group, and had more muscle mass. He'd grown over the past few months. Ulrich was quiet, reserved, and didn't open up to many people, but when he did, he would do anything for the ones he love. Especially when it came to Yumi.

Ulrich and Yumi, to say the least, are in love with each other; madly in love with each other in fact. But, neither of them still had the guts to admit that. Sure, they danced around their feelings, but neither of them said the three simples words "I love you" to each other. And since they didn't, it usually caused a lot of drama sometimes.

"I think that sounds great guys!" Odd grinned as he stopped playing his electric guitar. "There's no way none of the other bands can beat us."

Odd lived up to his name. He was odd. All of Odd's hair stood up, as if he was a dragon ball z character, with a purple blotch in the center of his blonde hair, which he claims the purple spot is "natural" but none of his seemed to buy it. Odd was the most carefree of his friends, which caused him to get in trouble sometimes. But, he does have his moments where he takes things seriously, but that was rare. Odd was the shortest out of the guys, and the skinniest, which he claims he's "svelte." Odd also lived up to his name because of the fact he wore nothing but purple for his day outfit.

"We didn't even finish the song though…" William Dunbar stated, as he removed himself from the drums. William was the new drummer for the PRP, much against the group's wishes, but they no longer wanted Nicholas doing it, so the only person left was William. Who was pretty good at the drums, but, the group still didn't trust him, especially after being possessed by XANA. William had grown a little bit over the past few months. He was no longer the tallest guy in the group. Ulrich was. William had shaggy short black hair, and had tanned skin. He has brown eyes an over confident cocky smile he wore a lot. William wore a long sleeve red shirt under a black short sleeve shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers.

"You'll be okay." Odd responded. Odd was probably the most skeptical about William surprisingly. William rolled his eyes and walked off the stage.

William being William, he was still a hot head. "You know, sometimes I don't feel welcome around you guys. We destroyed XANA months ago, but you guys still treat me like I am is prisoner."

"Because you were." Ulrich muttered under his breath, but loud enough for him to hear. Ulrich and William have been hating each other's since day one. William has always had a crush on Yumi, and because of that Ulrich despised William, mainly because William would always heckle Ulrich about being a grade younger than him and Yumi. But, the only reason why Ulrich was a grade younger was the fact Ulrich's birthday was late. Also, William was more "confident" in himself, which always threatened Ulrich, because William didn't hide his feelings.

"What was that?" William glared.

"I think you guys sounded great." said Jeremy, as he stopped a potential argument or physical fight from happening. Jeremy was the brains of the group, or in better words the smartest in the group aside from Aelita. Jeremy was the third tallest in the group surprisingly. He had blonde hair, and black glasses over his hazel greenish eyes. Jeremy had slightly pale skin, and wore a blue long sleeve shirt over dark blue jeans and white sneakers. He was skinny like Odd, but not as skinny as him.

"Yeah, I couldn't agree with Jeremy more, I'm excited to see how this is going to play out…" Aelita stated, but started having a strange feeling. Aelita was the second smartest in the group. She had short natural pink hair and green eyes. Aelita was a very pretty girl, and it went noticed by several guys in the school; but she didn't pay much attention to it. Aelita wore a pink short sleeve shirt under a light blue jean jacket, a pink skirt that stopped a couple of inches over her knee caps, and pink boots. She was Yumi's best friend, and Jeremy closest friend.

"Are you okay Aelita?" Yumi noticed her friend's sudden mood change.

Aelita focused her attention back on her friends. "Huh, oh yeah. I'm sorry. I just have a weird feeling that the rest of the evening is going to be kinda "off"."

"Oh, I hate when I get feelings like that." Odd waved off. "Every time we have to go to class is an off day for me."

"Why you never pay attention in class anyway." Ulrich joked.

"That's cause Mrs. Hertz lectures aren't worth my time. What am I going to need chemistry for anyway?"

"I don't know, how about, everything in life." Jeremy reminded Odd. Just then all the lights began to flicker on and off rapidly.

"Wow, that's weird." Odd laughed slightly. "Did the school forget to pay the electric bill?"

"Odd, that's not funny." Aelita said, slightly scared.

"I'm sure it's nothing…" Ulrich stated, as he watched the lights continue to flicker, until the lights cut off completely.

"Well, I guess that really determines practice is over." Yumi looked up at the now dark gym room. "I need to get going anyway, my parents are going to wonder where I am."

"Hey,uh…I'll..I'll walk you home." Ulrich blushed, and scratched the back of his head.

Yumi slightly blushed, and looked down at the ground to try to hide her smile, but it didn't go unnoticed by Aelita, or William for that matter; even if it was dark in the room. "That'd be great…Ulrich..thanks."

"I can walk you home too Yumi…" William stated. "You know, so you can have a _real man_ for protection just in case something happens." Ulrich gave William a death glare, as Yumi sighed to herself.

"Never mind. I'll just walk home by myself." Yumi changed her mind and walked off of the stage, and to the gym floor to grab her book bag. "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye Yumi." Her friends waved. Yumi waved back as she started walking out of the gym. Ulrich sighed to himself as he watched Yumi leave the gym. He then glared at William, before grabbing his book bag.

"I'm going back to the room. Bye guys." He directed to Odd, Jeremy and Aelita, who simply waved back

"You know, that was real petty William, even for you." Odd hissed at William.

William glared at Odd. "What did I do?"

"You know what you did." Jeremy nodded his head, and picked up his bag, along with Aelita's. "I can see why Ulrich can't stand you, you really do heckle him, directly and indirectly." Jeremy finished, and handed Aelita's bag to her.

"You know Ulrich's confidence isn't that strong, or strong at all when it comes to Yumi. But you know you are, so you use that to your advantage." Odd added, and picked up his bag as well.

"It's not my fault the kid doesn't know how to talk to a girl." William barked.

Aelita nodded her head, tired of all the fighting going on, but most of all tired of William's overconfidence. "William, I would just let it go. Let her go. She doesn't like you in that way, at all." Aelita chimed in. "Just let them be." Aelita nodded her head, and started walking out the gym, with Odd and Jeremy following in suit, until Odd turned around.

"You know Ulrich protected Yumi more times than you will ever be able too." Odd corrected William. "If anybody can protect Yumi besides herself, it's Ulrich."

William was slightly taken aback by Odd's seriousness, and the fact that he was scolded by three "friends." "You know, eventually you guys are going to have to start accepting me. XANA's gone now, and you can't just keep avoiding me like I never existed!" William slightly shouted the three, but they ignored him and walked out of the gym, leaving him alone in the dark gym.

William sighed to himself, and turned around to grab his bag. When he turned around William was scared almost to death by a figure that stood almost the same height as him, and was dressed in a long black cloak, with the hood hiding their face.

William inhaled deeply, trying to catch his breath and regulate his heart rate. "Who are you?" The figure said nothing. "I'm not going to repeat myself again, who are you?!" William went to remove the figure's hood, but the figure forcefully grabbed ahold of William's arm.

William slightly cried in pain. "Let me go!" William used his other arm to punch the figure in their stomach but when he did, he felt a force pushing his fist back.

The figure let out a dark laugh. "Remember me." The figure looked allowed William to look at who they were. William's eyes widened in horror, it was XANA.

"No. You're supposed to be dead." William tried to release his arm away from the figure.

"I will never die!" The figured yelled, as the figure disintegrated into black smoke and entered William's body. William began coughing, as he tried to cough the smoke back out, but he failed. William was now taken over by XANA, again.

"_How I missed you on my side William." _XANA laughed, he was now in control of his "puppet" again. _"Now, do as I say…" _William's eyes were now the XANA symbol, he was no longer William for the time being, and he began obeying XANA and walked out the gym doors, out the same doors Yumi walked out of moments before.

**Yumi's POV**

I sighed to myself as I was walking home. I can't believe the words that came out of William's mouth as he indirectly claimed Ulrich wasn't a real man, and that he couldn't protect me. Grant it. I can protect myself. But, if I could choose anybody to help me when I am defenseless, it'd be Ulrich. But, to say the least. I'm quite shocked that Ulrich didn't retaliate at William's comment, even though I could tell it made him angry.

But I really hoped that Ulrich would have walked with me home, because I really wanted to talk to him about us, and where we stand. Since XANA has been shut down, him and I were, how should I say, trying to explore our romantic relationship again. I have to admit, when XANA was still active, the whole reason why I strictly wanted to be "friends and that's all" with Ulrich was because I was scared. I was scared that if XANA knew I was _in_ love with Ulrich, and we were together, XANA would do anything to tear Ulrich out of my life. I didn't want that. I never ever want that to happen.

I, Yumi Ishiyama cannot imagine my life without Ulrich Stern. He's my best friend, my hero, and the love of my life. I sighed to myself, wishing things were so much easier and simple. But with Ulrich, things will never be simple; especially with William in the picture.

Suddenly I felt a hand grab my shoulder. I wanted to punch whoever thought they could lay their hand on me in the middle of the woods, this late in the evening, but then I realized it was just William. Great. I knew that I didn't have feelings for William, not that I ever did. I admit, he was kind of attractive, but that's all it ever was. I didn't get butterflies in my stomach when I saw William, unlike when I did when I saw Ulrich. It was just an unwanted feeling to be around William.

"What do you want, I said I didn't want anybody to walk me home." I stated, and rolled my eyes. But William didn't answer. I shrugged his hand off my shoulder, but his hand didn't budge. "What are you doing, let go of me." William then looked up at me and my eyes widened. Those eyes. That symbol. William wasn't William anymore, he was being controlled by something I thought was destroyed.

"Xana." I said under my breath.

"Precisely." He said in an evil voice, before I felt something sharp hit my arm. I looked down at my arm and noticed gave XANA me a shot or something I didn't know of what. I started feeling light headed, until I saw nothing but the back of my eyelids.

**Ulrich's POV**

I couldn't believe the words that came out of Dunbar's mouth. All I wanted to do was just walk Yumi home, alone. We haven't really bonded that much since XANA was destroyed, or yet but a label on what we were. I shook the thoughts out of my head, as I knew I would begin thinking too much into it. I decided to take a walk around in the woods, to blow off some steam, a new thing I started doing I guess. I just didn't feel like going to my usual spot to sulk. I adjusted my book bag on my shoulder and decided to head back to my room and get ready for another day of classes tomorrow.

"What are you doing, let go of me." A familiar voice demanded. I looked up at saw that it was Yumi and William, and that William had a grip on her shoulder. Normally I would be jealous and run away right about now. But, the look in Yumi's eyes said that she didn't want William there, or touching her for that matter. It was then I saw William put a needle out from his pocket and jab it in her arm. What the hell gotten into William.

"Hey William!" I shouted, and ran up to them. I saw Yumi pass out on the ground. I swear my heart never skipped so many beats and somehow I was still alive. When I ran up to the two, I pushed William away from Yumi.

William started laughing weirdly, and somewhat evilly. "What the hell has gotten into you William?" I scolded. I bent down to Yumi and removed the strands of hair that fell over her face, I saw that she was unconscious, she was breathing, but barely. _"Oh no." _

"She has thirty minutes before it spreads through her body, and kills her." William said. I felt anger rush through my body. I immediately stood up from where I was, and grabbed William by his shirt and slammed him to the nearest tree.

"Why'd you do that?!" I yelled, when I had William pinned against the tree, I noticed something very different about him, he was cold, not that he wasn't ever cold in the first place. But, it was different. The evil laugh continued, I looked at William, and noticed that his pupils weren't the normal ones, they were the symbol of something I thought was destroyed months ago.

He laughed evilly again. "Thought I was gone." He laughed again.

"_Go figure, XANA comes back and the first thing he does is takes over William, again. Yippee." _I thought to myself. "You're supposed to be dead."

"Never left Ulrich." He smirked, he then shoved me away without even laying a finger on me. I quickly recovered from the blow and looked around. XANA-fied William disappeared. I quickly ran over to Yumi and laid her across my lap, and cradled her in my arms.

"Yumi?" I shook her gently. "Come on Yumi, I need you to stay with me." I shook her again, but gently not to hurt her. I quickly pulled out my cell and called Jeremy.

"_Ulrich! Xana he's…" _

"Back, I know. Look, Yumi's in trouble, I don't know how long she has. Xana possessed William and he stuck her with something, and it's gonna kill her please hurry!" I slightly yelled into the phone.

"_We're at the factory now, we just started up the supercomputer, it won't be long."_

"Alright, just hurry please!" I begged.

"_Will do!" _

I hung up the phone and placed it on the ground. I looked down at Yumi, she still wasn't responding. "Yumi, please! Stay with me." I was on the verge of crying, but I shook out my emotions. I had to be strong. Something then dawned on me, XANA said she had thirty minutes. Whether or not I should believe him was an understatement. I quickly grabbed my phone again. XANA said she had thirty minutes, which was about seven minutes ago, give or take; meaning Yumi only had twenty-three minutes left, before….

I grabbed Yumi's hand, and intertwined my fingers in hers, and held her hand close to my face. "Please Yumi, just…please give me a sign….anything…just please so I know that you…you can at least… hear my voice."

For a moment, there was nothing, but it was then that I felt her finger slide across my cheek.

***Normal POV***

***With the Others***

"Guys, get ready for virtualization. Xana activated tower in the forest sector!" Jeremy spoke into his headset. Jeremy took a deep breath, it felt strange saying that again after so long, well not that long, but felt like a long time.

_22 minutes. _**(A/N Yumi's time)**

"And we have to hurry, Yumi's in bad shape." Jeremy added.

Both Aelita and Odd glanced at each other before approaching their own scanner. Aelita took a deep inhalation of the oxygen surrounding her, and stepped into the scanner. Odd also took a deep breath, as he was slightly nervous, for a first, as he didn't know what to expect from their archenemies return.

"_**Transfer Aelita, Transfer Odd."**_

The scanner doors closed, there was no turning back now.

"_**Scanner Aelita, Scanner Odd….Virtualization." **_

Odd and Aelita were then hovered over the air as they were being virtualized in a place they were they would never return. It was a mere milliseconds before the two landed on their feet in the forest sector.

Aelita took in a deep breath, and looked at her surroundings. The forest sector looked absolutely different from the last time they're been here. The forest, actually looked like a real forest. There was a tiny path, but for the most part, just a lot of tree roots. In fact, it looked very similar to a temperate forest but on steroids. The trees stood very tall, and the branches covered the sky, only leaving little sunlight to shine through.

"Looks like XANA did a little upgrading. Speaking of which, think you can upgrade our outfits Einstein." Odd looked down at his usual big purple cat outfit. "Hey Jeremy, I'm going to need my overboard."

"Coming right up."__Jeremy said as he furiously typed away on his keyboard to give Odd his vehicle. "I spotted the tower, it's not that far from you. Just start heading northwest."

After a few seconds of waiting, Odd's overboard appeared in front of him. "Thanks." Odd stepped on his overboard, and allowed Aelita to climb on the back of it.

_20 minutes_

Once Odd got acquainted with his overboard again, he was off to the tower. "It's so different, it's strange." Aelita looked around at the newly designed forest sector. "Is it me or is it warm?"

"Yeah, it is. I noticed that too." Odd said as he maneuvered his way around the huge tree trunks.

"How can it be warm, that's impossible?"__Jeremy scratched his head, as he was slightly confused. He then started to check to be sure the virtualization process went fine. It went smoothly from everything he was seeing on his screen. "Uh oh, hey guys. You have a couple of hornets coming up behind you!"

Odd and Aelita looked behind them. "Nice to know something's never changed XANA." Odd and Aelita then took a double look at XANA's upgraded monsters. These hornets were different, they looked stronger, and faster. Instead of their usual yellowish color, they were now jet black. Instead of their five pairs of wings, it was replaced with just two. Instead of their mosquito like mouth, it was replaced the mouth on an actual bee. The eye of XANA was still present in the middle of their head, but this time, the hornets had a pair of eyes; and these Hornets were bigger.

"Uh, Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

"I see it. XANA is definitely up to no good. These hornets are different, they have more life points, and their speed is faster!"

"Really Jeremy, who would've guessed!" Odd stated as he glanced behind him and saw that the hornets were catching up fast.

"Stay away from their stingers! They can shoot them out and cause you to lose forty life points."__Jeremy advised.

"Not a problem Jeremy! I'm on it." Odd stated as he continued down the path he was taking, and still was maneuvering around the tree branches. As Odd was making his way to the tower he saw that the hornets had caught up to him. There were two of them, one on Odd and Aelita's left, and the other on the right.

"Energy field!" Aelita shouted, as she attempted to take down the Hornet on her left. But the Hornet was faster and quickly dodged out the way as it began to charge up its stinger. "Odd look out!" Aelita tapped on his shoulder repetitively.

"Huh?!" Odd looked over to the Hornet on his right and saw that it just shot it's stinger out. Odd quickly changed the direction of his overboard to go up, as the stinger from the hornet hit the other Hornet that was chasing after them exploded.

Odd laughed. "XANA is still dumb as ever I see." Just the Hornet that attempted to shoot it's stinger at Odd and Aelita was still following them. Odd turned his head and noticed the hornet was still after them.

"Laser arrow!" Odd shot one of his laser arrow toward the hornet, but it dodged out the way. Once the Hornet was close enough, it exploded, making Odd's overboard disappear. Odd and Aelita both slightly screamed as they were both caught off guard, and were now falling.

Aelita then swiped over the star on her wrist, and her pink wings appeared from her back. She stopped falling and went after Odd who still was. Aelita caught Odd just before his body could slam against the tree roots.

Odd sighed in relief. "Thanks princess. What happened?" Odd said as Aelita gently placed Odd on the ground, as placed herself on the group, making her wings disappear.

"Don't you get it Odd. Think about it when a bee loses its stinger what happens to the bee?" Aelita questioned.

"They grow another one?" Odd guessed, shrugging his shoulders.

"No. Odd. They die. Which explains why that Hornet exploded and took you guys out. XANA created bees that resemble honey bees." Jeremy stated

"Wow, very good Jeremy." Clapped a figure behind Jeremy. Jeremy slightly jumped in his chair, and turned around and saw William unconscious on the ground, and saw a dark human figure walking toward him.

"Jeremy, who was that?" Aelita asked, as her and Odd began making their way to the tower again.

"Who are you?" Jeremy asked as he tensed up when the figure was coming toward him.

The figure laughed evilly. "Don't you know? You've been fighting against me for how long now?" The figure stopped when it stood directly in front of the tensed blonde haired boy.

Jeremy gritted his teeth, and looked at the cloaked figure in disgust. "XANA." Jeremy muttered under his breath.

XANA laughed evilly, and looked up at Jeremy revealing his face. "Precisely. Like my new look." Jeremy examined XANA's physical form. He was pale, very pale; ghostly pale almost. Under his hood you could see he had very long jet black hair. He eyes were black and red. He had a scar under his left eye that stopped right above his lip. He stood taller than Jeremy, and he wore nothing but black. Moreover, he had a tattoo of the symbol on his left hand.

"No." Jeremy barked. "After this mission, we're going to destroy you. Just watch."

XANA laughed evilly, and shook his head. XANA then glared at Jeremy evilly, and Jeremy begun to feel pain in his body.

Jeremy shouted in agony. "Jeremy, are you okay?!" Jeremy heard Aelita calling for him.

"Yo, Einstein what's going on?" Odd called for Jeremy as well.

XANA then stood directly in front of Jeremy and held his face inches away from Jeremy's. "Listen here. Listen good. I am going nowhere. You see, you may think by turning off _this _supercomputer is going to stop me." XANA laughed evilly again. "But, it's not. In fact, you will make my time easier to take over the world. You, and your filthy friends will die. I guarantee it…"

"Today isn't going to be that day!" A voice shouted behind XANA. It was William. XANA looked behind him and when he did, William swung a pole at XANA's head temporally knocking him out. "Hurry, we don't have much time until he wakes up!" William helped Jeremy sit upright again.

Jeremy caught his breath after the dreadful pain he just experienced. He then turned back to the supercomputer and adjusted his headset. "Guys, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, what happened Jeremy?" Aelita asked as she and Odd kept sprinting towards the tower.

"Step down Xana, you won't win this fight!" William adjusted the pole in his hand, and prepared himself for a full on fight. Xana stood back up to his feet, and gave William the same haunting stare he gave Jeremy.

"Ahhh!" William screamed as he dropped the ground. He began feeling pain all over his body.

"Guys, you're gonna have to hurry up William isn't doing so good, and I haven't heard from Ulrich about Yumi!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"We're trying our best Jeremy, but Xana just set us two tarantulas! A boy are they gross." Odd explained as he looked at the tarantulas. They were different. Just like the Hornets, the tarantulas looked more realistic. Instead of the four legs they had, they had eight, eight extremely long legs that were very sharp on the ends. The XANA symbol was on the top of its head. These tarantulas were dark brown, and ugly.

"They're blocking the tower." Aelita pointed as the tower was in sight.

"Great, now we just have too…..ah!" Odd was shot web string and was stuck to a tree.

"Odd!" Aelita turned towards her friend. She then turned back to the tarantulas, as the other tarantula began spitting out web from his mouth toward Aelita.

"Be careful Aelita, you can't get stuck either. Odd you just lost fifteen life points, try to get yourself out, and Aelita can't do it by herself!" Jeremy exclaimed as Aelita shot a couple of energy fields towards the tarantulas but missed; just then Jeremy received a call from Ulrich. "Hello, Ulrich?!"

"Jeremy what's taking so long?" Ulrich panicked. "Yumi doesn't have much more time!" Ulrich looked down at his love. Yumi eyes were now dark, almost sickly dark. She was pale. She was cold, and she was slightly shaking.

"We're trying Ulrich! Odd's trapped, and Aelita's fighting the tarantulas by herself, and William is fighting Xana!" Jeremy explained.

"Wait what?!" Ulrich said confused.

"I'll explain later, look do everything you can to keep Yumi with you…."

"What do you think I've been doing huh?!" Ulrich said louder than he wanted too.

"I'll let you know when we get close to the activated tower, but Ulrich being tense isn't going to help Yumi. Alright." Jeremy informed.

Ulrich sighed, and looked down at Yumi. "Just hurry please."

"Okay." Jeremy said and ended the call with Ulrich.

"You were always a fool to me William, worthless, you aren't strong." Xana crouched over William who was still in pain.

"Ah! Shut up Xana!" William was slowly moving away from Xana, and tried reaching for the pole until more pain spread throughout William's body.

"I don't need you. I'm stronger than I've ever been before! Can't you see?" Xana started to cause Jeremy pain as he sensed that Jeremy was behind him ready to strike.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Jeremy fell to his knees. Xana smirked and looked over at Jeremy, while still causing William pain.

"Trying to be slick, huh Jeremy?" Xana smirked. "Pitty, and I thought you were smart."

Meanwhile, Odd was still was struggling to break free from the web. A hiss was then heard from above Odd's head and he quickly glanced up and saw another tarantula crawling down towards him.

"Oh hell no." Odd muttered under his breath. He then began clawing harder under the web to try to break free.

Aelita hid behind a tree branch, trying to think of an idea to get to the tower quickly as possible. "Odd! I'm going to shoot an energy field at you!"

Odd glanced over at Aelita. "What, have you gone crazy?!"

Aelita sighed. "Just trust me." Odd nodded his head and shut his eyes. "Energy field!" Aelita yelled and an energy field came straight toward Odd. Instead of the energy field hitting Odd, it destroyed the web Odd was stuck in.

Once Odd was free he started climbing up the tree toward the tarantula, as it speedily crawled toward him. Once the tarantula was close enough, Odd smirked and jumped off the tree branch, allowing him to be in the airborne for a short period of time.

Odd focused his arm at the tarantula and yelled two famous words. "Laser arrow!," and the tarantula blew up. Odd then landed next to Aelita.

"Thanks princess." Odd spoke, and then looked at the other tarantula's that were still guarding the tower. "I have an idea to get you to the tower."

"What?!" Aelita exclaimed, Odd wasn't the brightest when it came to ideas, everything was always head on for him.

Odd smirked. "Just trust me."

"Come on Yumi, please. I need you to stay with me." Ulrich kept Yumi's hand in his. Ulrich looked down at Yumi, her eyes were trying to stir open. Everything in her body just felt so weak, so numb, and so heavy. She never felt so vulnerable in her life (so she thought). She was just so tired, and just wanted to sleep.

"Please Yumi, can you open your eyes so I know you're still here with me?" Ulrich begged. _"Come on Yumes, open those beautiful big brown eyes of yours…" _Ulrich thought to himself. Yumi's face then started to scrunch up slightly, until she slowly lifted her eyes. Everything was blurry, but she could still make out Ulrich's face. Ulrich slightly smiled and absently mindedly brushed back some of Yumi's hair back. "Hey…"

"Heh…hi…" Yumi said above a whisper, she just didn't have the strength to find her voice.

"Uh…how are you feeling?" Ulrich asked, trying to light up the situation.

Yumi glared up at Ulrich, giving him an answer with her eyes. When Ulrich saw this he slightly chuckled, and looked away from Yumi and saw that she had at least ten minutes left before whatever Xana infected her with would take over her body. Ulrich shook off the thought and looked back down at Yumi, whose eye were now closed.

"Yumi." Ulrich said quietly, hoping she would open her eyes again. She didn't. "Yumi!" Ulrich shook Yumi gently. Ulrich then felt for Yumi's pulse it was ever weaker than before. "No, no! Okay Yumi, please stay awake. I need you…to stay with me and fight against this." Ulrich kept his eyes on Yumi hoping to see any sign of movement. There was none. "Please Yumi, don't let Xana win! Please you can't let him win, people need you…"

"Odd, that's crazy!" Aelita exclaimed.

"I never said it wasn't, but it should work." Odd looked back towards the tarantulas, and then back at Aelita. "I can't do this without you though."

Aelita stared up at Odd, and pondered his decision for a second. But since they didn't have much time because of Xana's torturing of William and Jeremy, and Yumi on the brink of death. There was no time to think about things.

"Alright we'll try." Aelita approved, and swiped her hand over the star, bringing out her wings.

"Alright, let's go!" Odd said as he began running on the ground toward the tarantulas as Aelita flew directly above him.

The tarantulas began shooting their webs at Odd and Aelita, but Aelita managed to deflect them with her energy fields.

"Laser arrow!" Odd jumped over one of the webs and shot down one the tarantulas. "Yes!" Odd celebrated.

"Energy field!" Aelita deflected another web that came close to sticking to Odd again. "Celebrate later Odd."

"Right!" Odd agreed and kept sprinting toward the last tarantula.

_Seven minutes_

"Energy field!" Aelita tried to aim at the last tarantula, but missed.

"Laser arrow." Odd shot the tarantula, but only managing to damage it. The tarantula then did something that was not expected. It then shot venom toward Odd, and he was knocked down.

"Odd, are you okay?" Aelita exclaimed, since Aelita was now caught off guard the tarantula took the chance to shot some web at her. "Ah!" She screamed before falling down to the ground hard.

"Aelita!" Odd yelled, and glared at the tarantula who began quickly crawling over his way toward him and Aelita. Odd then weakly got up, and started running towards the tarantula. Once they were a few feet away from each other Odd jumped in the air once again, he focused one of his arms to the Aelita who was wrapped in the web, and the other tarantula, but the tarantula shot out its venom, making a direct hit towards Odd.

"Laser arrow!" Odd called out before he was devirtualized.

The tarantula blew up, and Aelita was free. Aelita, not taking any more chances decided to make a break for the tower, she was so close. When she ran up toward the tower she was then shot away by another tarantula's venom. Before Aelita could get up, it shot more venom at her making a direct hit.

"Hey Xana, let my friends go!" Odd tackled Xana to the ground. When he did William and Jeremy were still in pain, but not as much since Xana wasn't harming them anymore. Odd stayed on top of Xana and continued to fight him, and punch him in the face. Xana blew Odd back into the factory wall. Xana smirked and began walking over toward Odd. William then tackled Xana back down to the ground and held us hand to his throat.

Xana then laughed evilly. "What are you going to do Willam….kill ah eh…." William pressed down on Xana's throat. "Shut up, weakling."

When Jeremy was able to recover himself, he stumbled over to the supercomputer to see what was going on. "Oh no! Aelita if you get hit again it's all over!" Jeremy exclaimed into the headset.

_Three minutes_

Aelita stumbled up to her feet, and pink balls began glowing from her hands. "I'm on it Jeremy." Aelita placed the two energy fields together and make one giant one like she's done in previous times. Meanwhile the tarantula prepared itself and shot more venom toward Aelita before she could make a move.

Aelita threw the large energy ball toward the tarantula. When she did she cancelled out the venom and make a direct hit at the tarantula, and it blew up. Aelita inhaled deeply, and sprinted toward the tower. Aelita spread her arms apart and entered into the tower. It was all too familiar. Aelita speedily walked towards the center, knowing she had little time to deactivate it.

Ulrich held Yumi closer to him as she had less than 30 seconds left.

_30_

"People need you Yumi!" Ulrich repeated himself.

_29_

"Your parents need you…"

_28_

"Your brother needs you…"

_27_

"Aelita needs you…"

_26_

Aelita was then lifted from the first platform up to the second.

_25_

_24_

_23_

_22_

_21_

_20_

Ulrich refused to look at the time on his phone, he kept his eyes shut and held Yumi closer to him than he ever before.

_19_

_18_

"Jeremy needs you…"

_17 _

"Odd needs you…"

_16_

Aelita landed on the second platform and walked up to the center. But the screen did not show. "Uh Jeremy…"

_15_

"I know I see it, I'm doing everything I can." Jeremy furiously typed away on the computer.

_14_

"What's going on Einstein?" Odd asked worriedly.

_13_

"Th…the screen isn't…" Jeremy continued to type away on his computer.

_12_

Aelita then relaxed a little when the screen finally showed up. She hurriedly placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

_11_

Ulrich gritted his teeth and the next thing he said. "Will...William needs you…"

_10_

_9_

_8_

_7_

**Code**

Xana then forcefully shoved William away, again not laying a hand on them. He picked up both Odd and William and began to strangle them in midair, but again he wasn't touching them.

6

Ulrich took a deep breath and looked down at violently shaking, and in pain Yumi.

_5_

Ulrich felt a tear rush down his cheek. "I need you…"

**LYOKO**

4

The tower then turned back to its normal color. Xana then dropped Odd and William to the ground as he began to disappear into black smoke. "This isn't over…." He whispered evilly until he was vanished in thin air.

_3_

"Jeremy…hurry, and return to the past…now!" Odd coughed up.

"Right!" Jeremy typed as fast as he ever did in his life. "Return to the past…."

_2_

"Now!" Jeremy slammed his finger on the enter key.

_1_

Just then, time stopped, and the white bright light enveloped the whole entire world, sending it back into the past.

The return in time made the group in their last class of the day.

"And as you see, Hydrogen in row one, row one is also known as the alkali earth metals…you will need to know all the elements listed in this row, as well as their atomic number…."

Ulrich then slightly jumped in his chair, only getting the attention of his friends. "What's up Ulrich?" Odd said as he woke up from his nap.

"Yumi! I don't know if she made it." Ulrich said worriedly, he glanced at all his friends.

"I'm sure she did Ulrich." Aelita laid he hand on top of his for reassurance.

"I don't know I mean she only had a second left, what is she didn't?" Ulrich hesitated.

"Ulrich there's a 1000 milliseconds in a second, I'm sure she made it." Jeremy also tried to reassure his friend.

"That's not a lot Jeremy." Ulrich reminded him.

"Ulrich, relax, Yumi wouldn't leave you without getting her goodbye kiss first." Odd snickered.

"Shut up Odd." Ulrich slightly blushed, and scolded his best friend.

"Mr. Stern, is there something you would like to share with the class?" Mrs. Hertz called.

"Uh…" Saved by the bell. Ulrich quickly raced out the class, not caring about his book bag.

"Wow, talk about being in a hurry." Jeremy slightly laughed.

Odd smiled and grabbed his roommate's book bag. "Come on, this is Yumi we're talking about. Of course he would race out the class to make sure Juliet's okay…."

Aelita and Jeremy smiled at Odd's comment.

"Besides Romeo got poisoned not Juliet, of course Yumi can't be gone, the plot would be all jumbled up." Odd laughed.

Ulrich ran across the courtyard to Yumi's class. Ulrich stood a couple of feet away from the door waiting for her to come out. Several students came out and still no sign of Yumi. Ulrich started to hesitate, he then felt his muscles _slightly_ relax when he saw Yumi walking out with William.

"Yumi." Ulrich called out. Yumi looked over at who called her name. She smiled and dropped her book bag. She ran, or more like sprinted her way over to Ulrich. Ulrich smiled and caught Yumi in a hug.

"Oh my god I'm so happy to see you!" Yumi said into the hug.

"Me? I'm happy to see _you_." Ulrich pulled away just enough to see into her eyes, those eyes he loved so much. The two then realized how close they were and pulled away from each other, as they were blushing madly.

"Hey Yumi, great to see yah!" Odd smiled, noting that he was make fun of this moment for a long time.

Yumi looked over at Odd, Jeremy, and Aelita who were walking up to her and Ulrich. She looked down in embarrassment. "It's great to see you guys too."

"Here Ulrich you left this." Odd tossed his book bag to his tall brown haired best friend. Ulrich caught the bag and put one of the straps over his shoulder. William, who noticed the whole reunion between Ulrich and Yumi slowly walked over toward them with Yumi's book bag in his hand.

"Wow, that was close huh?" Aelita recalled.

"Too close for my comfort." Jeremy pushed his glasses to his face.

"Me too." Ulrich agreed.

"I think we should go back to my room and have a meeting. We need to discuss the return of you know who." Jeremy said quietly, and the others agreed. Just then William walked up to the group, and they become quiet.

"Here Yumi, you dropped your bag." William handed the bag back to Yumi.

"Oh thank you." Yumi took the bag and placed it on her back.

"Yeah." William nodded his head, before looking at Ulrich, who glared at him and then looked away. "Well, I can see that I am not welcomed here by the awkward silence, so I'll leave…"

The others sighed, and watched as William walked away. Ulrich then hesitated, he knew what he was about to do he was going to regret for the next. Forever. "William, wait."

William stopped in his tracks and made sure he heard right, to make sure it was Ulrich calling him. "Jeremy and Odd told me that you practically saved their lives back there, and I guess…." Ulrich looked down at his feet. "I guess you _are_ part of the group…" The others looked at him in pure shock, especially Yumi.

"Really?" William walked back up to the group, Ulrich simply nodded his head.

"Yeah, even if you were possessed, you didn't become a "hero" and become a big shot and show off, seemed like you actually cared." Jeremy added.

"We probably would have been goners if it wasn't for you." Odd looked up at William.

William smirked. "Thanks guys."

"Yeah, just don't make me regret it." Ulrich muttered under his breath, but still everyone heard.

"Alright guys, let's go head to my room." Jeremy started walking, with the others following him in suit.

**There it is! Chapter One. Now my chapters will most likely be this long, mainly cause like my chapters are like episodes. Then again, there will be other times when the chapters are broken up, but you won't see it that often. But man, that was so suspenseful writing I was on the edge of my chair!**

**Also, if you couldn't tell. I'm a diehard Ulrich and Yumi fan! They are my OTP! So, you will see a lot of sparks between them. **

**I have a question for you guys though. Should Aelita end up with Jeremy? Or Odd? I always shipped both Odd and Aelita as well as Jeremy and Aelita. So, I'm going to leave it up to your guys. Odd or Jeremy for Aelita to end up with.**

**Reviews are love!**

**Hope you enjoyed.**


	2. He's Back Part 2

**Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. I don't have much to say right now. I didn't get much reviews as I thought I would have, but I really like where this story is headed and the potential it has so, I hope you guys like the rest of the story and future chapters to come.**

**Heads up: That was William singing background in the song "Bring me back to life" I'm not sure if I was clear on that.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the song that was used in the last chapter.**

"So, let's discuss what we already know." Jeremy said as he rebooted his computer. As of now the six warriors were all in Jeremy's room.

"Xana's back." Odd stated.

Jeremy nodded his head and adjusted his glasses. "Thank you captain obvious."

"Well what else is there to say Jeremy, we thought we shut this thing down months ago. How did he return?" William asked, as he was leaning against the door with his arms crossed.

"I am about to find that out now." Jeremy replied, and started typing away on his computer.

"I'll help you Jeremy." Aelita spoke, and pulled out her laptop and started assisting Jeremy. Meanwhile, Odd, William, Yumi, and Ulrich were trying to figure out how their worst enemy returned from the dead, or how he even managed to come back.

After at least twenty minutes of silence, except an exchange of words coming from Jeremy and Aelita, Jeremy spoke up. "Alright guys, I think I have the answers to everything we need." Jeremy turned around in his chair and looked at his friends.

"Well?" Yumi asked.

Jeremy sighed, and looked over at Aelita, who glanced at him then back at their friends. "Xana managed to return because somewhere in the world, he's bringing in power from six different sources that are pinpointed in different locations in the world…."

"Wait what?" Odd was confused.

Aelita spoke up. "Xana is using power from six different supercomputers, and each super computer is in six different places of the world."

"Then all we have to destroy are the six replicas, and bada bing bada boom we win again." Odd babbled.

"It's not that simple Odd. Guys, Xana, he's stronger than he's ever been before, stronger than we've ever seen…" Jeremy started, but was cut off yet again.

"Wait, why do you keep calling Xana a "he"?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremy nodded his head. "That's the point I'm getting at. Xana is so strong now that he managed to create himself in human form. Like I said, he has six different sources of power keeping him alive. But, the unfortunate thing is that there are no replicas…"

"So how are we supposed to destroy him if there aren't any replicas? That was the only sure way we could destroy him right?" Yumi asked, looking between Jeremy and Aelita.

"We don't know, Yumi." Aelita looked down as her laptop. "We just know Xana is going to make sure we don't know where these sources of power is coming from either."

Yumi shook her head, and ran her fingers through her hair. "I can't believe he's back. What else did you guys find out?"

Aelita looked over at Jeremy with slightly sad eyes. Jeremy looked back at Aelita, and then back at his friends. "Xana created five new sectors." Jeremy informed his friends.

"Five?" William exclaimed. "And…and what are they?"

"Well, there is the sea sector. It's nothing but water…" Jeremy started to explain.

"Nothing but the digital sea you mean?" Odd muttered.

"No. Odd. It's just regular water. You won't disappear in this particular sector if you fall. Mainly because the tower, is under water." Aelita explained.

"And how are we supposed to breathe under water?" Ulrich asked.

"That's where I'm going to have to make some changes with you all on Lyoko." Jeremy stated. "Then Xana made a Volcanic sector."

"Volcanic sector?" William asked.

"It's exactly what sounds is like. It's a massive volcano." Jeremy explained. "I need to tell you guys something though. Every now and then, the Xana will erupt the volcano, and when he does, the magma will spread on the ground. If you fall in this magma, you have a chance of disappearing forever…"

"Great, and how are we supposed to stay on our vehicles without Xana's minions shooting at us?" Odd questioned.

"I'll figure something out." Jeremy reassured.

"And where exactly is the tower in this sector?" Yumi asked.

Aelita sighed. "It's inside of the volcano…"

"What? Are you kidding me?" Yumi's eyes widened. "And supposedly were are magically supposed to stay on our vehicles the whole time."

"Trust me, I'll figure something out to make sure nothing bad happens."

"The worst has already happened Jeremy!" Yumi slightly said louder than she intended. "What else worse can happen now huh?"

Jeremy sighed. "Nothing can, but I also have more to tell you guys. The news doesn't get any better though." His friends sighed, and motioned for him to continue. "There's another sector called the Swamp sector, the water there won't affect you though and the tower is on land."

"Then there's what Jeremy and I call the Stratosphere sector. It's in the Ice sector, but it's completely airborne the whole time…."

"So, there's just a tower levitating in midair?" Odd asked.

"No, just the screen that Aelita has to enter the code." Jeremy informed.

"Great, and the last sector?" William asked.

"It's basically the ground sector, or cave." Jeremy informed. "There's more though…"

"Of course there is…" Yumi mumbled.

"You see, Xana programmed each sector to replicate the real world…" Jeremy saw that Odd was about to open his mouth, so he quickly continued. "Meaning each sector has its own weather I should say. For example the forest sector, it'll rain, or rain a lot. For the desert and volcanic sector it'll be hot, for the mountain sector it'll be windy and stuff like that. For the ice sector it'll snow, if you get my drift." Jeremy informed.

"Also, Xana programmed his monsters to be in, how I should say, assigned sectors." Aelita explained.

"What do you mean by that?" Ulrich asked.

"Meaning, for example the hornets and tarantulas you'll see always in the forest sector. Tarantulas I'm sure you'll see in other sectors as well, as well as the hornets possibly."

"So you mean to say that there could possibly be more monsters out there created by Xana?" William pointed at the screen on Jeremy's computer.

Jeremy nodded his head. "Yes. But we don't know what…"

"Well, what else is he capable of?" Odd asked.

"We don't know that either Odd, we don't know what he's capable to do on Earth either, so we just have to be careful." Aelita explained. There was then silence in the room. No one really wanted to talk, or was in the mood too as they were still stuck on the fact that Xana was back, and that he's stronger, and the fact that they had no idea what Xana was capable of doing.

Yumi then looked down at the time at her cell phone. "I better get home, my parents may start to worry if I don't get back." Yumi picked up her book bag from off the floor and stood to her feet after sitting on Jeremy's bed.

"Wait Yumi, before you go. I need to ask you all something." Aelita also stood to her feet after sitting on the desk. She then walked in the center of the room so she can look at all of her friends. "Um, I know that wasn't easy to hear that Xana is back and all. But, I just need to know if, you all are gonna fight this war with me, so we can destroy Xana once and for all, and make sure he has no way of coming back. I know it's gonna be dangerous, and hearing how strong Xana is, a lot of people could get hurt. What I'm trying to say is, I just wanna know if we all are still a team?" Aelita stood nervously, awaiting for her friends answers.

Silence then fell upon the room.

"If Xana wants a fight, he's gonna get one." Odd smirked. Aelita smiled and nodded her head and her friend's remark.

"I'm in, Xana's gonna pay for thinking he had control over me for so long." William nodded his head.

"Me too, Xana isn't going to get away with this. I'm going to make sure you guys have everything you need to have to beat Xana." Jeremy assured his friends.

Ulrich hesitated for a moment. He then sighed to himself, "I'm in too, it would be wrong to turn my back on you guys right?" Aelita smiled and nodded her head, and then looked nervously at Yumi as she waited for her answer.

Yumi didn't know what to say, she thought all of this was over. The last thing she wanted was for Xana to be back; moreover, stronger than anyone has ever seen him before. There was so much at stake fighting again, and for the first time ever. She was scared, but she didn't want to admit that to her friends. But, deep down she knew that eventually they'll get through it, one way or another.

"Once a warrior, always a warrior." Yumi nodded her head, and gave Aelita a reassuring smile.

Aelita returned the smile. "Thank you guys, I promise we'll destroy Xana, for good this time."

Yumi's smile faded a little bit. She nodded her head, and placed her hands on her backpack straps. "I better get going. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Yumi turned around and left out of Jeremy's room. Ulrich sighed, as he watched Yumi leave.

"Well, go walk Yumi home…" William looked at Ulrich. All eyes looked over at William in shock.

"Wh…what?" Ulrich stumbled over his words.

"You heard me. Go. Walk Yumi home." William looked over toward the door, and then back at Ulrich. "Just don't make me regret saying that." Ulrich stood to his feet. Before he walked out the door, glanced over at William for a second, and Ulrich nodded his head; giving him a silent thanks.

"I'll catch up with you guys later." Ulrich said, and he ran after Yumi.

**Yumi's POV**

I can't believe this. I absolutely cannot believe Xana is back, and stronger than any of us has ever seen. I just thought all of this was over. I silently laughed to myself in disbelief. I guess we will be fighting an evil supercomputer until I'm eighty years old, especially the way things seem to be going. I then nodded my head in disbelief. I didn't know what to do. I just didn't want this, I didn't ask to be a superhero, and not have the world know about it. I guess, nobody asks for any of this to happen to them, it just does. Life's complicated.

I just didn't want to go through all the drama again, all the fights, reliving the past over and over again. I especially didn't want to keep consistently keep fighting with Ulrich. When Xana was here, all we did was fight about our relationship or friendship. Whatever we were. But, when Xana was supposedly gone, everything was starting to look up with him and I. Now, that Xana was back, I didn't know anymore, and I didn't want to risk Xana taking the most important person in my life away.

"Hey Yumi, wait up!" Speak of the devil, and the love of my life. I stopped in my tracks, and turned around just enough to see Ulrich running up to me. "I..um…I just wanted to uh..walk you home…if that's cool with you?" He looked everywhere but my face.

I slightly smiled to myself, and nodded my head. "Yeah, uh thank you."

Ulrich returned the smile. Ugh, how much I loved that smile, why is this so hard. Why did Xana have to be back? "So uh, how are you taking the news." Ulrich asked, as we started the strolled to my house.

I looked down at my feet. "It's just shocking, you know? I thought this was all over."

"Yeah, I did too." Ulrich spoke. "I mean, we beat Xana on the first mission back, so I mean he's not as strong as he think he is."

I looked up at Ulrich, then back at the path we were walking on. I couldn't take this, I have to lay the ground on Ulrich, again. He's going to hate me for it. I know he is. But, I can't risk losing him. If Xana knew what I felt for Ulrich, he probably would do anything in his will power to take him away from me.

"Yumi are you okay?" Ulrich asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking about some stuff…" I answered.

"Well, um, you want to talk about it?" He asked.

I looked down at the ground again, and bit my lip. "It's just this whole Xana thing, with him being back and stronger than ever, I just have a feeling things are just going to go downhill from here. Especially with him being stronger and everything…" Ulrich nodded his head, and I continued. "Sometimes I question myself how did I get myself in this situation."

"Well, it's kind of my fault." Ulrich slightly chuckled. "You were with me the first time Xana attacked." Ulrich stated.

I tried to hold back the smile that that was trying to make its way on my face. "Yeah, it is all your fault isn't it?" I joked.

"I didn't want any of this to happen, Yumi." Ulrich shoved his hands in his pockets, a classic Ulrich move. "I hate myself sometimes cause I feel like I brought you into this mess…"

"Hey, don't blame yourself. Okay? I was stubborn at the time, and I insisted that you tell me everything, so it's partially my fault." I looked up at him.

"Yeah, maybe if you would have had some friends you would be like everyone else at Kadic." Ulrich joked.

My mouth opened in shock at his sarcastic remark, then I smiled and pushed him playfully "Haha very funny Stern." Ulrich laughed. "But, I'm not ashamed to say that I don't really regret any of it…" I looked away, and gazed my eyes forward as we were still walking. "If I wasn't stubborn at the time, I wouldn't have had the best friends anyone could ever ask for."

I saw Ulrich shift uncomfortably for a second at my last statement. "Yeah, you're right." I opened my mouth to say something else, but Ulrich beat me to it. "Well, here we are." Ulrich gestured toward my house with his hand.

I looked over at my house, then to the ground, and then up at Ulrich. "Um, thank you for walking me home, 'preciate it."

"Yeah, no problem. What are friends for right?" Ulrich replied. I then felt sudden guilt wash over me, like, I feel like if I allowed myself to be unhappy by not being with Ulrich. I let Xana win. That's the last thing I wanted to do. "I'll see you tomorrow Yumi." Ulrich said as he started to walk back toward Kadic's campus.

"Ulrich, wait." I caught up with him, and then stood in front of him; stopping him in his tracks. "Um, remember when you uh…you um asked to go into town…and you know catch an ice cream?" I looked everywhere but his face, trying to fight off the blush that was forming on my cheeks

"_Catch an ice cream, Yumi. Really?" _I mentally smacked myself.

"How could I forget?" Ulrich looked down at the ground.

I continued to look everywhere but his face. "So uh, did you want to grab an ice cream then, tomorrow….." I glanced over at him and noticed that he was trying to fight off blush as well.

"Uh, um…" Ulrich stuttered. "Uh, ye…yeah su-sure."

I slightly smiled toward him. "Great. I'll see you tomorrow then." I walked passed Ulrich and up the front stairs to my house.

"See you tomorrow." Ulrich waved, as I opened the door to my house. I waved back at him and walked into the house. When I closed the door, I pressed my back against it. I looked up at the ceiling, and smiled to myself.

**Normal POV**

"So how was the walk back with Juliet?" Odd asked as his roommate who walked back into the room, as he was petting his Kiwi on the head.

Ulrich turned his back toward his roommate as he tried to fight off the blush forming into his face. "Uh it was fine. I guess, it was just a walk."

Odd gave his best friend a weird look. "Nothing happened?"

Ulrich shrugged his shoulders and laid down on his bed. "Yeah, nothing happened."

"Come on Ulrich, when are you finally going to put down the shy card and ask Yumi out." Odd gave Ulrich his full attention. Ulrich glanced over at Odd, and then looked away. "William basically gave you the golden opportunity to admit that you like Yumi and you didn't do anything. Now, the whole group…."

"Odd, relax." Ulrich held his hand up as he didn't want to be lectured. "Yumi and I…we're gonna go for…an ice-cream tomorrow…"

"Seriously?!" Odd grinned. "That's great man, you finally get to go on a date with Yumi…"

"I don't even know if it's a date Odd, we could be going as "just friends" and that's all." Ulrich started to underestimate.

"Ulrich, you have a bad habit of overthinking things." Odd reminded Ulrich. "Is this that ice cream date that was…"

"Yes Odd, the one I asked Yumi to go to when her and I got in a fight with the whole thing with Emily." Ulrich stated.

"At least nothing is stopping you this time." Odd remarked.

"Nothing except Xana…" Ulrich sighed.

"Yeah, we'll beat out Xana eventually though. We always do." Odd shrugged.

Ulrich nodded his head. "Yeah. I guess, for once you're right."

"I'm very intuitial Ulrich." Odd grinned.

Ulrich gave his best friend a weird look. "Intuitive?"

"Yeah, but don't change the subject. Back to this date with you and Yumi…." Odd grinned. "It's about time you two are going out, you only mumble her name in your sleep every night…" Ulrich rolled his eyes, and grabbed his towel from his closet as he continued to listen to Odd's rambling. "What else do you do? Oh, you only write about how much you love her in your diary…."

"You read my diary?!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"No. I didn't read it. I skimmed it, big difference. Besides, it was open on your bed anyway."

"I'm going to take a shower." Ulrich sighed to himself, as he walked out of his dorm. "Don't feel like waiting till the morning, so…"

Odd shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever, I'll be asleep when you get back anyway."

"Yeah, I'm sure you will…" Ulrich chuckled and shut the door behind him to get ready for another day tomorrow.


	3. The Fight

**Not much to say. But I hope you all enjoy the third chapter of Into the Fray! ****I'm having a lot of fun writing this story for you all. Also, I just want to say thank you to those who reviewed, it keeps me going!**

As the final bell rung, it signaled that it was the weekend. It has been two days since the group found out that their arch-enemy somehow returned from the dead, and that he was stronger than ever.

"You know, if XANA claims to be such a badass, why isn't he attacking us now?" Odd questioned, as he and his friends walked towards their usual bench.

"Now that you said something, he might attack." Ulrich rolled his eyes, and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Well then bring it on XANA." Odd spoke.

"Speaking of which, Aelita and I have been using up the time that XANA didn't attack to give you all some cool new upgrades that'll make a difference in my opinion, but they aren't ready yet." Jeremy explained.

"Really, well tell us a little about them?" Ulrich insisted.

"You'll just have to see when you guys get there. I want it to be a surprise when it's finished." Jeremy smiled.

"Well, I don't think XANA would give us enough time to check out our upgrades Jeremy." William reminded him.

"He's right Jeremy, we should tell them." said Aelita.

"Hey, you okay Yumi, you're quiet." Ulrich look back at Yumi who slightly staggered behind everyone.

Yumi looked up from her feet, and up at Ulrich. "Huh, oh yeah. I'm fine."

Ulrich saw right through Yumi's lie, but decided against making a scene and left it alone. "Okay, just making sure."

Yumi gave Ulrich and fake smile and nodded her head. As the group continued to talk about all things Lyoko, Yumi couldn't help but shake the fight her parents have been having for the past couple of days. They have been practically screaming at each other, and throwing things around the house. In fact, when Yumi came down to go to school this morning, it had looked like a tornado went through the family room.

The worst part is, her parents have been ignoring both Yumi and her brother, as if they didn't exist. For the last couple of days, Yumi and her brother had to fend for themselves when it came to food and many other things. Yumi sighed to herself, and tried to shake off the angry and sad emotions that was flooding through her, and most of all she didn't want the others knowing what was going on.

Just as the group was about to sit down at their usual bench, the famous buzzing of a familiar beep started going off. They stayed quiet for a moment, still getting used to the fact that their arch-enemy is back. The group stared down at Jeremy's backpack, and then back at Jeremy.

Jeremy leaned down and picked his book bag, and pulled out his laptop. He sighed. "I think we all know what that means, XANA's attacking. He activated a tower in the Desert sector."

"Any attacks here on Earth?" William asked.

"No, there isn't any news out, or spectors, that I can see." Jeremy answered as he shut his laptop.

"But, we should get going before he does." Aelita reminded her friends. They each nodded their heads and headed towards the factory.

"_Transfer Aelita, Transfer Odd, Transfer William."_ Jeremy's voice could be heard as he started up the virtualization.

"You sure you are okay, Yumi?" Ulrich asked, as he waited his turn to be sent to the place he didn't feel like going too.

Yumi had her back to him, as she stood in front of her scanner, also waiting her turn. Yumi slightly turned her body, and looked up at Ulrich. "Yeah I'm fine, just not used to being back here." Ulrich looked right through Yumi, and she knew it. "What?" Yumi questioned, Ulrich nodded his head, and looked away from Yumi.

"So, I guess maybe that ice cream will cheer you up later, after we get passed this mission and all." Ulrich turned his head, and stared at his scanner.

Yumi closed his eyes, and was going to regret what she was about to say. But, she was just going through way too much for being a teenager. "Look Ulrich, about that…"

Ulrich sighed. "Know what, Yumi. Just…just save the excuse okay. Matter of fact, let's just forget the whole going to get ice cream thing." Ulrich turned his back to her.

"Don't be like that Ulrich. It's just I have a lot on my mind right now, things I can't explain." Yumi defended herself.

"Well we all do Yumi, we all having something going on in our lives that we can't explain. I mean, have you taken a look around lately…" Ulrich explained.

"Well this is different, Ulrich, okay?" Yumi glared at Ulrich. "And you want to know the worst part about all of this?" Yumi questioned. "Instead of you being a friend, you are being so similar to Xana right now. Careless."

Ulrich felt his blood start to boil in annoyance and anger. "I could say the same for you Yumi." Ulrich turned his head to lock eyes with Yumi. "Heartless." Yumi looked at Ulrich with wide eyes. She then bit her bottom lip and looked away from Ulrich.

"Uh…you guys ready to go in?" Jeremy asked his friends, hopefully stopping the argument between the two lovesick teenagers.

"No, but I don't think I have a choice in the matter." Ulrich spat out.

Yumi sighed, and ran her fingers through her hair. "Uh…okay then, go ahead and take your places, the others are waiting. No sign of Xana yet."

Ulrich and Yumi stepped in their scanners, which were always directly across from each other. The briefly exchanged looks, before the doors to the scanners closed, and before they knew it, they were in the Desert region.

When Ulrich and Yumi landed to their feet in the Desert region, the two kept their distance away from one another, an uncommon signal that each of their friends all know too well.

"Okay what happen between you two now, huh?" Odd questioned.

"Mind your business Odd, okay." Ulrich backfired, and looked away from his best friend.

Odd huffed. "Whatever."

"Alright guys, the tower is just ahead of you, if Xana doesn't send in his army, you'll be there in no time." Jeremy spoke.

"On it Jeremy, let's go." Aelita nodded her head, and stared running toward the tower, with the other behind her.

"This seems easy." William spoke as he was sprinting.

Odd agreed. "Yeah, a little too easy."

"Well let's not question it guys. The sooner we deactivate the tower, the better." Aelita reminded them.

As the group was running, as black energy ball shot straight towards Aelita, and instantly devirtualized her.

"Aelita!" Odd shouted. "What the hell?"

"Jeremy what happened?!" Ulrich questioned, as he pulled out his sabers, and looked around for where the energy ball came from. The other's also pulled out their weapons, and looked for the attacker.

"No less, what do we do about the tower?" Yumi spoke, as she swallowed all her saddened, hurt, and angry emotions.

"Uh I-I don't know guys, it said that Aelita was devirtualized but she isn't here on Earth…." Jeremy panicked, and typed furiously away on the supercomputer.

An evil laugh then surrounded the Desert region. "Well…well…" A figure then appeared in front of the group with its arms crossed. "…well." Xana smiled evilly, and spoke slowly. "Now you all know nothing is going to be easy dealing with me."

"What the hell have you done with Aelita Xana?!" Odd aimed his arm out at Xana.

"Whoa there kitty cat." Xana forcefully placed Odd's arm down by his side. "She's back in your world as of now, but I may have tweaked the devitalization program a bit, and don't bother trying fix it, because you won't find the solution…."

"What do you mean tweaked the devitalization program?" Jeremy felt himself getting angry.

Aelita fell out of the scanner holding onto her arm in agonizing pain. Aelita inhaled deeply as she tried catching her breath.

"You see, whatever injures you get here on Lyoko, they will follow you to the real world." Xana smiled evilly.

Aelita removed her hand from her arm and saw that it was a medium sized bruise forming. Aelita shut her eyes tightly as the pain was getting worse, it felt as if her arm was broken.

"The best part is, if you die here on Lyoko, guess how you will come out the scanner?" Xana chuckled evilly. "I have something to show you all. But you see, I don't want to fight you all just yet…"

"I wouldn't want to fight us either." Yumi glared at Xana.

Xana ignored that comment. "….you all know and see, that I am untouchable. It would be boring not having a fight, and a good one at that." Xana looked past the warriors and looked at what was walking up behind them. "Like my _new _upgrades."

The Lyoko warriors looked behind them and their eyes widened. They saw, themselves a few feet away from them. But, this version of them was dark and evil looking. Xana then laughed evilly, and disappeared into smoke.

The evil clones of the warriors now stood eye to eye to one other.

"Jeremy, what's going on?" Aelita asked as she staggered her way over to the supercomputer.

"They're….they're fighting themselves…" Jeremy looked over at Aelita and his eyes widened. "Oh no, you're arm."

Aelita held her hand up. "It's fine, just badly bruised. But what do we do now that I can't deactivate the tower, and what do you mean they're fighting themselves?"

"I honestly, for once, I don't know the answer to that question…" Jeremy rubbed his temple and tried to think of a solution. "And Xana created clones of the others, I don't know how, but, he did."

"Attack now…" A whispered filled the air of the Desert region. The group looked around for a second, searching for the voice that filled the air, but they soon learned that it was a mistake looking away from their evil selves.

Evil Yumi made the first move out of everyone by kicking Yumi back with much force. Yumi tried to pick herself up, but the blow to the stomach was aching.

"Yumi!" Ulrich called out. Ulrich then heard his evil self unsheathe his sabers. Ulrich glared at Evil Ulrich and unsheathed his sabers as well. Evil Ulrich decided to make the first move and swung his sabers at Ulrich. Ulrich quickly blocked his attempts, and quickly took the opportunity to kick his evil self away forcefully.

Meanwhile Odd and Evil Odd were going at each other, neither showing weakness. "Laser arrow!" Odd shot a couple of his arrows toward Evil Odd, only for him to block his attempts. Evil Odd still held black shield, and shot laser arrows back at the Lyoko warrior, which made an impact.

Odd fell back on to the ground, and quickly got to his feet. "Fifty life points left Odd that took a lot of you."

"Yeah, I can feel it too." Odd quickly came up with another plan ran from his evil self. "Overboard Jeremy."

"On it!" Jeremy typed furiously away at his computer. "Try not to get devirtualized guys, I'm trying to figure out a way to fix the devirtualization program."

"But, we still don't know what Xana is planning here on Earth? And what'll happen if we don't deactivate the tower." Aelita reminded him, as she typed away on his computer. "All we know is that Xana is just going to maintain control. But, maybe, we can try to take of the tower here?"

"How would we do that Aelita?" Jeremy looked over at his long time crush.

"Don't ask me when you already know the answers Jeremy, you've done it before, you can do it again. I believe in you." Aelita looked over at Jeremy.

Jeremy turned away from Aelita as he tried to fight off the blush forming onto his face. "Alright, I'll try."

"Hey, what're you guys whispering about up there?" William said, as he continued to fight off his evil self.

"We're going to try to neutralize the tower, at least hold it off for a while." Jeremy explained.

"Well hurry please." William insisted as he continued to dodge Evil William attempts to attack him. "Super smoke." Both William's chased each other around the Desert region.

Meanwhile, Evil Yumi made another blow at Yumi again she struggled to get up. "You're even weaker than I thought." Evil Yumi said. "Could have had me fooled that you were the second strongest out of your so called group."

Yumi tried to get up again, but then she felt herself being pulled up by force. She then was looking at Evil Yumi in the eyes. "Face it Yumi, you're a disgrace, a joke, pathetic, weak, your own parents don't even care about you."

Yumi glared at Evil Yumi. "You're the weak one…" Yumi said, and broke out of the telekinetic force. Yumi then brought out her fans and threw them at Evil Yumi. Evil Yumi blocked the attempts with her own fans. Yumi then used her telekinesis and quickly brought the fans back and had a direct aim at her evil self. Evil Yumi fell to the ground, before Evil Yumi could get up Yumi threw her fans back at her again, but Evil Yumi caught them and destroyed them.

"Don't think you'd win that easily did you?" Evil Yumi smirked, she then threw her fans at Yumi. Yumi quickly reacted and used her telekinetic ability again and tossed Evil Yumi's fans away after snapping them in half.

Before Evil Yumi launched herself at Yumi, she disappeared before her eyes. Confused, Yumi looked around and saw that the other's clones were gone as well. "What happened?" Yumi asked as she saw the other make their way back over towards her.

"Well, we neutralized the tower." Jeremy answered. "Xana lost yet again, you guys can come back home."

"Is that the best Xana can come up, making a clone of us." Odd laughed in disbelief. "I mean, even the fights between Ulrich and Yumi last longer than that." Ulrich and Yumi gave Odd a cold glare

"I agree with you, only thing he's strong at is being pain in the ass, other than that he's a joke." William snorted. "Are you okay Yumi, you didn't look so good for a second back there."

Yumi looked over at William and nodded her head. "I'm fine." Soon enough each of the Lyoko Warriors were back on Earth, and not in too much pain.

Once again an evil laugh filled one of Xana's secret hideouts. "We will see just how weak I am stupid fools. I knew they would fall for my trap." Xana laughed. "Now the real fun begins…"

"Well, um, good jobs guys, you managed not to get devirtualized." Jeremy spoke as his friends walked into the room.

Aelita thought for a second. "Um, I don't know about you all, but don't you think the mission was a little too easy. I mean how Xana go from almost killing Yumi with one second left of her life, to making clones of you all, and making it easy for us to take over the tower." Aelita looked over at the group, and noticed that Yumi had a slightly disturbed look on her face. "I'm sorry Yumi, I didn't…."

"It's okay, I know what you meant." Yumi spoke up.

"Well, whatever it was Xana lost again." Odd stated.

"We're just going to have to keep an eye out though, because that was indeed a little too easy. Normally Xana would make it a battle for control over the tower, but he did nothing." Jeremy explained. "You guys can't go back to Lyoko for another twenty-four hours too, so, more than ever we have to watch our backs."

The others nodded their head agreeing. "I should probably get back home, guys. It's a little late." Yumi said after she checked the time on her phone. Ulrich didn't look over her way, instead he stared at the cold floor to the factory. Odd scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, and looked between Ulrich and Yumi.

"Okay, we'll keep you posted Yumi." Aelita smiled and waved, unaware that Ulrich and Yumi had an unofficial date. William too looked slightly confused but not surprised, and just sighed. He gave Ulrich the chance to go after the one he knew he loved, yet he didn't take advantage of the situation. Yumi nodded her head and waved at the others, before pressing the button to the elevator.

"Hey, what's going on? I thought you two were supposed to get some ice cream?" Odd pulled Ulrich to the side after Yumi had left.

Ulrich shoved his hands in his pockets, and look over at Odd. "Well, things change."

Odd gave his best friend a suspicious face. "What happened? First you two avoided each other on Lyoko, and now she's been pushing this ice cream date for two days, and when the weekend gets here, you two aren't going?"

"One, it wasn't going to be a date. All we are, and we all we will seem to ever be is "good friends, and that's all"." Ulrich started to let his emotions get the best of him, the last thing he wanted was to be stuck in the "friend zone" with Yumi. It wasn't a good feeling.

"You don't mean that." Odd waved off his best friend. "Yumi's been acting distant for a couple days anyway, maybe something is going on." Ulrich stayed quiet. Odd rolled his eyes and sighed. "Or just stay here…" Odd walked away from his best friend.

Ulrich sighed and held his head back to look at the ceiling for a moment, as he listened to his friends talk about Xana.

"Aelita and I are going to stay here and keep a watchful eye on things from here." Jeremy explained.

Aelita nodded her head. "Meanwhile, I think you guy's should head back to the school, and keep an eye for suspicious things there."

"Relax guys, Xana probably won't attack. When has he ever attacked in such close quarters?" William tried to ease the tension.

"William, we honestly don't know everything Xana can do with how strong he is now." Jeremy reminded him.

"Yeah, but we're stronger." William stated.

Jeremy sighed and finished his explanation. "We're also going to try to hunt down these other supercomputers he has. The quicker we find out how to beat Xana, again, once and for all, the better we all will be. It's going to take non-stop work."

Aelita nodded her head in agreement, and sighed sadly for a second before speaking up. "After being tied to Xana so long, I just sometimes feel connections to him, and Lyoko. With that being said, I just have a feeling that a lot of people may get hurt, including us." Aelita explained. "After knowing Xana for so long, we know that he will break us down in any way he can, so we can't let him win, mentally, physically, and emotionally. So more than ever, we have to stick together." The others nodded their heads.

"Well, we should be heading back to the school." Odd said. "Keep us updated if you guys see anything."

"We will." Jeremy and Aelita said in unison. Soon enough, the three guy's stepped into the elevator and headed up.

Aelita thought for a second to herself, as her head Jeremy type away on his computer, and try to make conversation with her. "I can't believe this is all happening, and happening so fast. We just have to figure out a way to defeat Xana and quickly." Jeremy looked over at Aelita and noticed that she was lost in her thoughts. "Hey, Aelita, are you okay?"

Aelita removed herself from her thoughts, and looked over at Jeremy. "Um, Jeremy there a moment where…" Aelita swallowed before continuing. "There was a moment where I felt trapped in between the real world and Lyoko, when Xana blasted that energy ball at me. I felt as if, Xana planted something inside me…"

Jeremy's eyes widened. "Like a virus?"

Aelita slowly nodded her head. "Like a virus."

Jeremy held his hand to his head, and sighed. "Curse you Xana. Alright, um, can you go get into the scanner please? We'll see what Xana has done to you shortly." Aelita nodded her head, placed her laptop down, and headed climbed down the ladder to the scanner room.

As the guy's walked out of the factory, they noticed a familiar black-haired friend sitting on the on the side of the factory.

"I thought she was going home?" William stated, while Odd and Ulrich simply shrugged their shoulders.

"I'm going back to my room." Ulrich muttered under his breath, still upset obviously. Ulrich decided to take the long way back to the school, which was through the forest. Yumi saw Ulrich walked past her, and rolled her eyes in a disbelieving way. She then laid her head down on the rail and looked down at the water that was the factory.

"What's with him?" William asked, as Ulrich's figure disappeared in the woods. "And what's up with her, what's up with everybody?"

"Ulrich and Yumi had a "not so date", date, tonight. Although it was supposed to be two days ago." Odd explained. "So, I guess something happened."

"Oh." William nodded his head. "I'll talk to Yumi, you talk to Ulrich."

"He isn't going to listen." Odd chuckled.

"Just try." William said. "I'll talk to Yumi."

"Well that's the last thing that's going to make Ulrich smile ear to ear, seeing or hearing that you're talking to Yumi alone." Odd reminded him.

"Who said he had to find out?" William said. "Just go talk to him."

Odd stared at William for a moment. "Fine." Odd said, as he ran to catch up with Ulrich.

**William's POV**

After I saw Odd run after Ulrich, I walked over to where Yumi was sitting. "You don't plan on jumping do you?" I joked, as I sat down next to my long time crush.

"That isn't funny William." Yumi commented, but didn't look over my way.

"Remember when we were about to fall from up here?" I looked up at the sky. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I never been so scared in my life." I looked over at Yumi again, who still refused to look my way. "To this day, I still can't swim."

"Why are you telling me this William?" Yumi finally looked over my way, but when she did I noticed that her eyes were a little puffy, and red.

"Are you crying?" I asked, but she quickly looked away from me and out into the open world.

"No." She said flatly.

"Is it because of Ulrich?" I wondered.

Yumi inhaled deeply, and closed her eyes. "I don't cry over stubborn boys. Okay?"

"Then what is it? You've been out of it all day, don't think I didn't notice that fight back there with the clone Xana made. I know you fight better than that. We all know you fight better than that." I reminded her.

Yumi stayed silent for a moment. "I'm just not used to going to Lyoko like I was, so my head wasn't in it. Now if you got your questions answered, can you leave me alone?"

"That was a nice try Yumi." I slightly chuckled. "Now what's the real reason why you're upset?"

"You're not going to go away, are you?" Yumi squinted her eyes over at me.

"Not until you tell me what's up with you?" I answered.

Yumi chuckled in disbelief. "Fine, I'll leave." She spoke, as she stood to her feet.

"You know, you really aren't going to get far in life holding back your emotions. You can only hold them in for so long until you blow up, or just push the ones you care about away." I spoke as she was walking. But I assume my words went through to her because she stopped in her tracks.

I stood to my feet, as she turned away to face me. "What do you mean by that?"

"It means exactly what I said." I told her. "Odd told me about your not so date, date with Ulrich." Yumi looked down at her feet, and shook her head. "So, either something else is going on with you to keep yourself from going out with him, or you're really just not that into him." I knew I was asking for trouble with those words, but one way or another I had to get through to her.

Yumi sighed heavily, and turned her back towards me. "It's just…my parents are fighting a lot at home. Okay?" Yumi ran her hand through her hair, and then turned to look at me again. "I keep having to take care of myself as if I am twenty-five or something years old. Feeding my brother, making sure he's squared away, on top of making sure I get myself straight. My parents barely spoken a word to me since they started fighting, it's like my brother and I don't exist to them anymore. Or if they do acknowledge me they have such high expectations of me, if I side with my mom, my dad shuts me out, if I side with my mom, she shuts me out. If I don't pick a side, they don't acknowledge me. So guess who loses. Me."

I sighed sadly to myself, now I understood why she's been quietly lately. "I've seen your parents William, and I wish my parents were like yours. They're happy with one another, while mine just yell, scream, throw things, and curse at one another." She finished, and crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry that's happening, Yumi." I spoke. "But, as much as I want to comfort you right now, you and I both know it's not me you want to be comforted by." I saw Yumi look at me but didn't retaliate. "Look, if there's anybody you need to be talking to right now, it's Ulrich." I inhaled deeply, I knew what I was about to say was true, as much as I didn't want it to be. "I know that you are in love with him. I saw that the first day I came to Kadic. I just thought that maybe somehow, someway I had a chance. I see the way you look at him, and you never looked at me in that way."

Yumi opened her mouth to say something, but didn't. "You know that I am a good people watcher, so I know you hate being vulnerable. But, when you're with Ulrich, that all seems to disappear. So, please I am hating myself for saying this, but just please go after him and spare us those petty fights you two have a lot."

Yumi looked down at her feet, and nodded her head. "Um, thanks William."

"Yup. Now, go after Ulrich. Before I decided to sweep you off your feet." I smiled.

Yumi gave me a small smile. "That won't ever happen William, sorry." Yumi started her walk to the forest.

"It was worth a shot." I smiled, and nodded my head. _"Good luck." _I thought to myself.

**Normal POV**

"Dude, you could at least talk to her and find out what's going on." Odd tried to convince Ulrich to talk to Yumi.

"I don't want too right now, Odd." Ulrich said in annoyance.

Odd rolled his eyes. "Yeah cause we all know out this will turn out when you two ignore each other. In fact it makes things worse."

"Well it isn't my fault that this happened, Odd. I didn't want to be having this argument with Yumi right now." Ulrich explained.

"You sound like a little kid saying that." Odd glared at his friend. "Oh well it wasn't my fault, boo hoo." Odd mocked. "That's an bull excuse, you and I both know that."

"So what do it matter to you anyway Odd."

"When you and Yumi fight, you know it has everything to do with the rest of us, Ulrich. Because when you two fight it affects all of us, in fact, it brings all of us down."

Ulrich stayed silent. "You know none of this would've happened if I wasn't shunned to being "we're only good friends and that's all" to this day I don't even fully understand what that means…." Odd saw Yumi walking up behind Ulrich, and he glared at Ulrich, indirectly telling him to stop talking. "….But you know what, maybe it's for the best, maybe all Yumi and I weren't meant to be is good friends, maybe not even that." Ulrich allowed his emotions to get the best of him. Ulrich knew for a fact that he doesn't mean any of those words, and he prayed to a God that that weren't true. But, he was about to let Odd know that.

Yumi stopped in her tracks at Ulrich's words, as she continued to listen. "Maybe we were only meant to be partners in defeating Xana, and when that time comes and we defeat Xana once and for all this time, we go our separate ways. After all she never said we were best friends, Yumi empathized on "good friends" so you know what, I'm done. There's only so much I can handle, I already get enough of it from my father." Odd looked at Ulrich, then back at Yumi who had hurt eyes.

"Is that really how you feel, Ulrich?" Yumi's voice cracked. Ulrich slightly jumped, he knew whose voice that was, and he was almost afraid to turn around, but when he did he noticed Yumi, who seemed angry, but yet hurt at the same time. "Is that really how you feel, about me, about us?"

Ulrich couldn't look at her, he knew he had hurt her. He broke his heart to many tiny pieces seeing her like this; but being a male with high pride he didn't want to seem like the "weak" one. "Th…there isn't an "us" Yumi, is there?" He glanced up at her.

Yumi continued to stare at Ulrich, but she nodded her head in disbelief. "Uh, no um. You're right, there isn't."

"Oh, well okay." Ulrich looked away from her again.

"Um, from now on, I'll just stay out of your way." Yumi's voice said a bit harshly. "And I'm sorry I was such a burden on your life. In fact, I'll just…be sure to remove myself from your life." Yumi turned on her heels, and ran home.

Odd stood there in disbelief at what just happened. He then walked up toward Ulrich. "Uh…"

"Just leave me alone." Ulrich stomped away. "And don't follow me."

Odd kept his feet planted to the ground, and he was unable to shake off what just happened. _"So much for sticking together._" Odd thought to himself.

"Hey, what happen? You look like someone just told you there's no meatballs and gravy in the cafeteria." William walked up to Odd with his hands in his pockets.

Odd shook his head, and looked over at William. "I think our lovebirds are lovesick."

William gave Odd a strange look. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, I'll explain on the way back to school."

"_This'll scare em'."_ Xana smiled evilly, as he launched an attack.

**So, I think I left this chapter off with some pretty good cliffhangers? What is Xana up to? What has he planted in Aelita? Will Ulrich and Yumi make up? Find out in the next chapter! Also, I want to start making this story, a very interactive story with my readers. So, if you all have anything you would like to see in this story, shoot your ideas in a review, or you all may private message me! That is, only if you all want to do so. But, I hope you all enjoyed this "build up" chapter.**

**Also, to keep this story on a schedule. I'm going to try to update the weekends! It's just so I can properly plan out the next chapter and keep it interesting for you all!**


End file.
